I'm revising. Well, I'm about to be revising. Right now I'm performing triage on the edit letter. Later, I'll lather my arms up to the elbows in toner powder, don a mask, and perform surgery. It won't be major. Setting a bone here. Extracting a tooth there. Tying some ligaments in knots so my patient will fall when he tries to walk. Just kidding. That would be a hypocritical disavowal of the Hippocratic Oath - not that I've taken it. I'm not a doctor. I just nod when cab drivers ask me if I am, so that I can hear all about their gross medical conditions.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. Revisions. My last revision was MAJOR. We're talking Worf's spine replacement in Star Trek TNG. Serious stuff.
This will be more like the game Operation. Some anxiety and mild jolting but nothing, you know, deadly.
I hope. These could be not-so-famous last words.
What makes you twitch when you're revising?
Realizing that a scene is 92.3% telling and then trying to figure out how to "show" the information. Many tears (and foul words) flow.
ReplyDeleteAlso, fixing the bajillion dialogue tags in my stories makes me vomit a little in my mouth.
Staring at a paragraph that has something in it that I need, and I can't just delete it or the spot before or the spot after won't make any sense, but the paragraph is not good and I have no idea how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI hate that moment.
The worst to me is when I know something is wrong, but I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is. I'm hopeful that this will get easier with experience, and it seems to be.
ReplyDelete"But Cobra," she said pointedly, "what's wrong with dialogue tags?"
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Sommer. In fact, I sometimes fiddle with the language until I start to lose the story. That is not good either.
BETAs, Tiffany, BETAs. You know what I'm talking about. :D
The question is - what DOESN"T make me twitch while I'm revising? ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your revisions!
Thanks! *twitches off into the sunset*
ReplyDelete